What is the Portland of the East?
May 25th, 2006, 11:06 AM
#21
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Austin is a good idea although houses in the city proper can be expensive too - although maybe less than Chicago. It's small enough but has good qualities of a proper city and it's so close to alot of outdoorsy activities.
May 25th, 2006, 01:12 PM
#23
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I think Charlottesville, VA, the research triangle area of NC (like Chapel Hill), and Asheville, NC, are all good suggestions so far. I'd also throw out the town of Northampton, MA. It's a smallish town with more good restaurants per capita than any other place I've lived or visited. It's one of the cultural centers of western Massachusetts, the public school sytem is very good, it's very liberal, full of friendly people, and is surrounded by geographical features that are locally called mountains but would probably more appropriately called "foothills." It's known as the 5-College area, with Mt. Holyoke, Smith, Amherst, and Hampshire Colleges, plus the University of Massachusetts at Amherts, which makes for lots of good used bookstores, good radio stations, lots of cultural draws, and interesting folks of all ages.
It's also a 45 minute drive away from Hartford, CT, with its major airport, with daily nonstop flights to south Floriday as well as to both O'Hare and the other Chicago airport.
The weather isn't exactly mild, but it doesn't get the heavy winter lake effect that Chicago gets, either. All four seasons here have something to recommend themselves.
It's also a 45 minute drive away from Hartford, CT, with its major airport, with daily nonstop flights to south Floriday as well as to both O'Hare and the other Chicago airport.
The weather isn't exactly mild, but it doesn't get the heavy winter lake effect that Chicago gets, either. All four seasons here have something to recommend themselves.
May 25th, 2006, 04:16 PM
#24
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Everything on the East Coast is going to be much hotter in the summer and much colder and snowier in the winter than Portland. I don't think there's any way around that, unless there are some magic little climatic pockets I'm unaware of. Remember, Portland is about the same latitude as Montreal, more northerly than any part of the Eastern US except the top end of Maine. What's the winter like in Burlington, VT?
May 25th, 2006, 07:40 PM
#28
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The 5 college area is a great idea! Burlington is pretty windy in the winter and can be very cold but not too snowy. The CT coastline (New Haven vicinity) also came to mind because it is a slightly warmer part of New England due to the effect of Long Island Sound. You can get any where from there by train, plane or automobile.
